HOME RULE.
CABLE_ NEWS
(United Frets Association — By Electric Telegraph — Copyright).)
AN IMPORTANT SPEECH.
BY THE PRIME MINISTER^
(Received Last Night, 5.5 o'clock.) LONDON. Dec. 6. The Rt. Hon. H. H. Asquith, Prime Minister, speaking at Manchester, expressed a much more hopeful view concerning the prospect of a settlement which would command the consent and goodwill of all parties. He referred to the sound basis of a settlement propounded in the Ladybank and Leeds speeches, and to Sir Edward Carson's latest suggestion that the humiliating of the minority ' should be avoidable. The Prime.Minister said he was sure that Sir Edward Carson would agree that this remark Should aka apply to the majority. He agreed with Sir Edward as to the necessity for avoiding in the Bill any possible separatist or federal tendency. " He endorsed the younger Pitt's declaration that the quality most needed in a Premier was not eloquence, knowledge, or industry, but patience. He deprecated short, if attractive, cuts, and hurried, precipitate committals', and declared that he was. not going to be bustled. , . Ms Asquith denied that the Leeds speech was a withdrawal of anything; said at Ladybank. He had, he said, been vainly looking for weeks,for. some corresponding, though not irrevocable statement from the Opposition side.. He unexpectedly found it in Sir Edward Carson's lateat speech at Manchester, in which he had declared that no settlement must huruil'ate or degrade Ulster. "Ireland must not be treated differently from a»y other part Of the Kingdom/' said Mr Asquith, "and must have the same protection from the Lnperial Parliament. No Bill nrnsc-eht:iblish the foundation for an alternate separation. Ido not find anything in these general conditios with whien. on principle, I am disposed to quarrel. Ireland's case is unjust, and must come first. The Imperial Parliament's supreme and unquestionable authority must be retained. The Liberals have supported Home Rule for a generation, because they believed it was not a stepping-stcne to, but a preventative of separation. The Government is prepared to consider, with a view to meeting eyery reason- j able objection, any stipulation in the Bill such as relates-to the Post Of- | fioe, which the Unionists consider has a separatist and anti-Federal tendency*. I regard Sir Edward Carson's declarations as significant and hopeful features of the situation. I cannot; but exprsss the belief, nay, the expectation, that a free and frank discussion on the lines indicated at Ladybank and by Sir Edward Carson may lead —as Heaven grant it will—what all desire far more than the prolongation of an embittered controversy, namely, a. settlement commanding the consent of all parties. Whether the min6rity\s apprehensions are well or ill-founded, they exist, genuinely and,are deeply felt, and they constitute, until abated, or removed, the ono formidable obstacle to self-government." The Daily Telegraph, commenting on the speech, says the Asquith Government waited until Ulster armed before it would believe that it was not? bluffing. Other papers consider that the issuing 'of the Proclamation is* belated. Unionists in Dublin legard the Proclamation a« a reoognit-idn by the Government of the seriousness of the situation in Ulster, and as a prelude to all possible steps to avoid the calamity of a civil war.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAG19131208.2.27.20
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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 8 December 1913, Page 5
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529HOME RULE. Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 8 December 1913, Page 5
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